Chris Hofley, QMI Agency

OTTAWA — Thirty years since Dr. Wilbert Keon performed the University of Ottawa Heart Institute’s first heart transplant, the organization is celebrating a record year for the life-saving procedure.

The institute performed 36 heart transplants in 2013, the highest total in Canada, to go along with a 100% survival rate for transplant patients upon discharge.

The 500th transplant was performed at the institute in 2012.

It’s not that heart donations went up significantly last year but that the Heart Institute is equipped so they never have to turn down a transplant, whereas other facilities might have to call in someone else if they are too busy.

All of the Heart Institute’s hear surgeons are trained to do heart transplants.

The institute’s incoming president and CEO, and former head of cardiac surgery, said the numbers are a huge achievement.